1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a front vehicle body structure and, more particularly, to an improvement in a front pillar as a vehicle body rigidity member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A vehicle contains an passenger's chamber having a desired driving space formed generally connecting a front fender portion positioned on both sides of the front vehicle body and both sides of the roof to the respective left and right front pillars. The passenger's chamber requires high rigidity for the purpose of protecting the passenger from being injured by protecting the space in case of car crashes or the like. Accordingly, the front pillars are a vehicle body rigidity member constituting a basic frame structure of a vehicle, and various attempts have been made to increase a rigidity for attachments of the front pillars, for example, by connecting the lower end portion of the front pillar to a hinge pillar having a closed section, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application (Early Publication) No. 20,359/1982.
It is also noted that front pillars, as one of the vehicle body rigidity members, require in themselves rigidity, in particular flexural rigidity in the front-and-rear direction of the vehicle body. At the same time, it must meet with a requirement for making the vehicle body lightweight. Thus, front pillars are generally designed to be of a hollow closed cross section. In order to increase the rigidity of such front pillars, an enlargement of the cross sectional area has been attempted, but this causes the problem that the front field of vision becomes narrower as the cross sectional area of the front pillars gets larger.
Front pillars have now been designed so as to determine sizes by balancing the two functions contrary to each other, that is, sufficient rigidity required as a vehicle body rigidity member and an adequately wide field of vision.